What Day Is It? Five Reasons Why I Missed My Deadline

Well, this is embarrassing … I missed Wednesdays post. I simply forgot. Well, I guess it wasn’t “simply.” The truth is I forgot to post because I was juggling a bunch of other things.

I published it on Thursday though. And I did have it written on Tuesday, I just … forgot … to schedule it for publication ….. sorry …. mumble, mumble.

But how did that happen?

Several things kind of ganged up on me, things I try to be aware of in advance and deal with.

Easily Distracted. I am working on several different projects at the same time. They each have their own deadline and they are all important to me for one reason or another.

Time Management Issues. I’m sure that most of you can understand and are even familiar with, on a personal level, time management issues.
For one thing, I can check to see what day it is, trying to ascertain whether I have a meeting or skype call, and not realize or remember that I have another deadline. Even if it is a weekly one … or perhaps especially if it is a weekly one.

Inattentive. Being busy and being successful at several different aspects of other projects can make me feel overly confident, like perhaps my ADHD is over, done, cured. I should know better by now, eh?

Still Inattentive. Having actually written my post gave me a sense of accomplishment associated with my post. In my mind I felt no pressure because the writing was done. I’m going to tell you a secret, there are a few things besides writing the post that have to be done. It has to be scheduled, formatted and tagged. Categories have to be selected and an image has to be located and installed. I prefer to use my own images, photographs I take or memes I create myself. I’m aware that that’s my problem, but it still has to be done.

The cat ate it. Okay, Random never ate my blog post, but this brings up the topic that I want to address in closing. Read on …

You see, no matter how much we apologize, no mater how much we explain, no matter how clear it is to us what actually went wrong, we will still blame ourselves. And we will accept whatever shortcoming fits as the reason for having done what we’ve done or not done what we were supposed to do.

I’m lazy, I’m stupid, I’m irresponsible …

I know I’m not these things, the problem is that deep down inside, I feel like these things are the only explanation that truly works. You see, I did miss my deadline, I didn’t publish on time, and I am sorry.

No one is punishing me for this, in fact my deadline is self imposed … but I still feel like I screwed up.

Sorry.

About Kelly Babcock

I was born in the city of Toronto in 1959, but moved when I was in my fourth year of life. I was raised and educated in a rural setting. I live in an area where my family history stretches back 6 or more generations. I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 50 and have been both struggling with the new reality and using my discoveries to make my life better.

APA Reference
Babcock, K. (2013). What Day Is It? Five Reasons Why I Missed My Deadline. Psych Central.
Retrieved on December 9, 2016, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd-man/2013/10/what-day-is-it-five-reasons-why-i-missed-my-deadline/

Last updated: 17 Oct 2013Views expressed are those solely of the writer and have not been reviewed.
Originally published on PsychCentral.com on 18 Oct 2013. All rights reserved.